Who Put the Chequer in Chequer Road?

Trying to fathom the origins of local place names can lead to fascinating journeys of discovery, often turning up unexpected revelations of social and natural history.

A chequer-board landscape, the game of chequers, and alcoholic drink consumed while playing chequers, the wild service or chequer tree (Sorbus torminalis) the fruits of which flavour the drink, and public house named after the game, are all possible etymological sources for the term ‘Chequer’ as used in Doncaster’s Chequer Road.

Back in 1581 and 1589 Doncaster had an area, field or close named Le Chequers ¹⁹. Although its location is uncertain, a clue is to be found on a 1778 plan of Doncaster which shows a short track called Chequer Lane passing south from Waterdale and entering an area set out in a suspiciously ‘chequer board’ pattern. The 1852 60″ to the mile scale Ordinance Survey map of Doncaster also shows Chequer Lane and adds a parallel track to the west called Chequer Lane Gardens, again set in a geometrical grid of small uniformly sized square allotments. An anonymous hand coloured plan dated 1872 and drawn to the unusual scale of six chains to the inch, adds to this clutch of references the position of a Chequer House. This was a large and imposing property fronting on to Waterdale at the junction with Chequer Lane; the West Riding Directory for 1877 shows the occupant to have been a Mr. Thomas Waite. Successive Ordnance Survey maps indicate the property’s continued existence up until at least 1903, but shortly afterwards, Chequer House was demolished to make way for the Girls High School which was completed in 1910. From the 18th century Chequer Lane only extended from Waterdale to the western entrance of what is now Elmfield Park, but during the early years of the 20th century it was extended south through the Park to link with Carr House Road (now Doncaster’s inner ring road). According to the 1930 1:2500 scale OS sheet for 1930, it quickly became developed with terrace rows (on the west) and semi-detached house (on the east) and its name changed to the current Chequer Road.

Interestingly. there is at least one other Chequer Lane within Doncaster region. This runs from the village of Kirk Bramwith, west to the carrland fields in an area known anciently as the Rands. Elsewhere in the West Riding there is a Chequer Close at Rawcliffe and Chequer Fields at Altofts and Pontefract ⁵.

Checking out the Chequer

As mentioned above, the term Chequer could also relate to the presence of Chequer trees, indeed, a group of these attractive and rare southern relatives of the Rowans and Whitebeams grew in Elmfield Park adjacent to Chequer Road, So were the road, gardens and house named after the trees, or were the trees planted as an arboriculture pun responding to an existing street name. Sadly these elderly specimens were felled during the 1970s ².

This native tree does indeed occur naturally in the Doncaster region, representing one of our rarest and most historically and ecologically interesting tree species.

A Southern Species in a Warming Climate

In Britain the Chequer or Wild Service Tree (Sorbus torminalis) is largely confined to limestone, chalk and clay districts of the southern counties, particularly the south facing slopes of the Downs of Sussex and the Weald of Kent ¹⁴.

It extends north in progressively reduced numbers through the easter counties and English Midlands, so its distribution in the northern counties is rare indeed. Apart from an apparently wild specimen near Fountains Abbey, North Yorkshire, and a small isolated population around Morecambe Bay and the Southern Lakes ¹⁴, southern Yorkshire effectively represents the northern limit of its natural distribution in these islands. Apart from horticultural introductions, its distribution in the north is limited by climatic as well as soil type considerations, thus the ‘balmy’ Doncaster region (and neighbouring but not so balmy Rotherham area) with its Magnesian Limestone and Permian Marl ridge and post-glacial clays provides the focus of most of the Yorkshire population.

A Survival of Doncaster’s Ancient Landscapes.

Of particular relevance to Doncaster is the Chequer Tree’s very strong and mysterious association with England’s historic landscape of ancient woodlands and ancient hedgerows. Although some of Yorkshire’s specimens are artificially planted, most of its known local sites are indeed associated with ancient woodlands, ancient enclosures or droveways, showing that here in the ‘tropics of south-east Yorkshire’ the Chequer represents a precious survival of Doncaster’s living historic biodiversity. An index of its scarcity is indicated by the 1986 study of South Yorkshire woodlands ¹⁰ which found it in only 2% of selected ancient and notable woodland sites, all evidence coming from the Doncaster Region.

A Check list of Chequer Sites

The Wheatly Clays

It was known by Dr, H. H. Corbett (Doncaster Museum’s first curator) to occur in Wheatly Wood in 1898 ¹⁷. Celebrated throughout the north of England as a source of many rare and interesting insect species, the majority of Wheatly Wood was destroyed during the 1950s to make way for the Intake housing estates. Individual specimens mat still survive in the adjacent woodlands of Sandall Beat, where its presence is tantalisingly suggested by a leaf collected during the late 1960s by Peter Skidmore of Doncaster Museum ¹⁷. Sadly the actual tree has never been located and its survival cannot therefore be confirmed. In Hagg Wood, a section of the old Armthorpe Shaw Wood, a specimen was discovered in 1996 near the railway line to the rear of the new factory units by Andy Hill of the Doncaster Naturalists’ Society.

The Hatfield Clay & Silts

In March 1991 the author located a specimen in the rather battered and abused western boundary hedge of the hay meadow forming the easter side of the nature reserve. This magnificent specimen, judged to be the largest in Yorkshire, flowers and fruits prolifically Lane Landfill site between Bootham Lane and Cuckoo Lane, Hatfield. Five adjacent hay meadows had already been engulfed beneath the growing tip but this last meadow, with its hedgerows and Chequer Tree were saved to be managed as the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s ‘Hop Yard Hay Meadow‘ nature reserve. This magnificent specimen, judged to be the largest in Yorkshire, flowers and fruits prolifically, being about 35ft in height with a girth of 43 inches at chest height, and has a series of well growing root suckers in the hedge from 6ft to 24ft from the main trunk ⁷.

The Limestone & Marl

Chequer trees were recorded in Wadworth Wood by the celebrated naturalist Arthur A. Dalman ³, science master at Mexbrough Grammar School, editor of the North Western Naturalist and President of the Doncaster Scientific Society 1922-23. He encountered a number of specimens here in 1935 in association with Field Maple, Yew and Lily of the Valley and therefore construing it to be a native member of the ancient woodland flora. The species was encountered again on the 14th June 1983 by Peter Skidmore, Chris Devlin and Colin Howes, were the specimens were in regenerating woodland on limestone and marl. In 1992 Dorothy Bramley ¹, Ian McDonald, Mike Oliver and Colin Howes ⁸ undertook a detailed survey of its status and distribution, locating specimens in eight sites, two to the south of the M18 and six to the north. Most were populations of dozens of suckers or spindly saplings growing to 16ft in competition with commercial ‘crop’ trees of Sycamore, Beech and Corsican Pine, but also in association with native Magnesian Limestone woodland and woodland-edge trees and shrubs such as Ash, Guelder Rose, Hazel, Spindle, Wild Cherry, Wild Privet, and Wych Elm. The largest specimens were adjacent to Tween Wood Lane, where two trees of 25ft with stem girths of up to 1ft 2inches at chest height. In addition, the rare gall mite Eriophyes piri var torminalis¹³ was present as a white felting on the leaves of two trees in two areas.

In Edlington Wood, a site recognised as a Site of Special Scientific Interest due to being fine example of ancient woodland on the Magnesian Limestone, the Chequer tree would certainly have been a typical member of the woodland-edge flora, particularly in clay marl areas, as in the above mentioned contiguous Wadworth Wood. It was last recorded here by William Bunting ¹⁶ in 1962, but woodland management since this date may have caused its demise. Its rediscovery by the author in Autumn 1998 in the species rich ancient hedgerow of Wood Lane, some 50 metres to the east of the wood, demonstrated its survival in the context of the ancient landscape of this remarkable area and raised the prospect of its re-introduction into the wood as part of native regeneration in the aftermath of commercial timber extraction.

On 25th June 1981 David Green, undertaking a survey for Doncaster Museum, located a single Wild Service tree in the western part of Hampole Wood, the largest and remote ancient limestone woodland set on the skyline amongst arable land between Brodsworth and Hampole. The South Yorkshire woodland survey ¹⁰ conformed its presence in 1986.

Hedgerow surveys by the Doncaster Naturalists’ Society on 25th May 1996 at the junction of the Magnesian Limestone and Coal Measures clays and sandstones across the remote Conisbrough Parks region revealed some fine ancient boundary hedges, including two with Wild Service trees, spotted by Ian McDonald near Clifton Gorse and in the hedge adjacent to Park Lane to the south of Conisbrough Lodge Farm.

A sample taken from a fruiting specimen in Wilsic, probably in the late 18th century, by a Mrs. William Walker, is in the herbarium of the botanist Mary Stovin (1756-1846) at the Dorman Museum, Middlesbrough ¹⁵. It is highly likely it still survives undiscovered in the ancient hedgerows and copses of the area since on 20th September 1986 and again on 19th August 1988 its presence was confirmed by the author, three kilometres to the south in the species rich hedgerow of the sunken droveway along Apy Hill Lane, Tickhill ⁶. Here it grows in company with Wild Barbary, Dogwood, Field Maple, Hazel, Holly, Plum, Spindle, etc. This truly remarkable assemblage., along with associated archaeological features, demonstrated this hedge bank to be in the region of a thousand years old and helped to fend off a phase of urban development which could have destroyed both tree and ancient hedgerow. The trees in the hedge are now protected by a Tree Preservation Order.

At Stainton Little Wood a Wild Chequer population was noted in August 1980 ²¹ when canopy-forming specimens were present by the stream. In 1986 the population was well established as mature trees which were regenerating (suckering) vigorously. In eighty one selected woodlands across South Yorkshire surveyed by the Nature Conservancy Council ¹⁰, this was the only example exhibiting such regeneration. Trees were again noted by Maurice Whitta and Ian McDonald of the Doncaster Naturalists’ Society on 9th May 1996.

Its presence in hedgerows in the Maltby area was known to the notable 18th century botanist, civil engineer and Enclosure commissioner, Thomas Tofield of Wilsic Hall, whose annotated copy of ‘Flora Angelica@ recorded it here as long ago as 1785 ¹⁸. Mr. Thomas Birks jnr. of the Goole Scientific Society recorded it at Maltby in 1878 ¹¹, and on the 10th October 18198, a tree was located near the path leading from Maltby down to Roche Abbey by Dr. H. H. Corbett. No doubt following up Thomas Birk’s record, Corbett collected a specimen for confirmation, the sample still surviving in the museum’s herbarium ⁴. In 1966 the Rotherham Naturalists’ Society recorded a fine specimen on Maltby Common and on 26th September 1977 the species was noted in adjacent Mallins Croft Wood.

In adjacent parts of North Nottinghamshire ⁹ it is known from woods and hedges especially on clay, mention being made of Walkingham and Cotham on the clay, but also Creswell Craggs on the Magnesian Limestone, and Shiroaks on the Sherwood sandstone. Rev. J. K. Miller ¹² gives the precise locations of the Walkeringham specimens as ‘a few yards from the footway stile, which separates the parishes of Gringley and Walkeringham on the left hand going to Gringley in the hedge’. T. E. Miller Jnr. also noted a large tree in the hedge on the side of ‘Botany Bay’, Walkeringham.

A Service to Wildlife Recording and Conservation

In late February, Mr. Michael Cooper, the DMBC Arboricultural Officer, having just planted five Wild Service trees in Elmfield Park, as part of Doncaster’s millennium tree planting programme, offered to provide an additional Specimen for planting in the garden fronting Doncaster Museum. Not only does this generous gesture make possible the planting of one of Doncaster’s rarest tree species for educational purposes, it provides the opportunity to put the ‘Chequer’ back in Chequer Road!

Since Doncaster Museum was founded by members of the Doncaster Naturalists’ Society, and also has enjoyed a long and fruitful association with this and the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union, it was thought fitting for the tree to be planted by Dorothy Bramley, president of the Doncaster Naturalists’ Society 1990-92 and whose late husband, Con, was Executive Officer of the YNU from 1971 to 1994. Dorothy is also an active member of the YN U, Wildflower Society, Botanical Society of the British Isles and is an accomplished botanical artist.

From left to right

• Derek Allen (DNS member)
• Tom Higginbottom (DNS President in 1994-95)
• Dr. Peter Skidmore (DNS President in 1972-75 & YNU President for 1995)
• Helen Kirk (DNS President 1999-2000 and the custodian of Yorkshire’s largest wild Chequer Tree at the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s Hop Yard Hay Meadow’ nature reserve.)
• Maurice Whitta (DNS member)
• Dorothy Bramley (DNS President in 1990-94)
• Colin Howes (DNS President in 1977-79 and YNU President 2000)

References

1. Bramley, D. M. (1993) The Wild Service Tree (Sorbus torminalis) (p.21), in Bramley, D. M. (ed.) A Survey of Wadworth Wood. Doncaster Naturalists’ Society.
2. Cooper, M. (2000) Pers. comm. February 2000.
3. Dallman, A. A. (1935) West Yorkshire Flowering Plants, North Western Naturalist. 10 (3) : 265-266
4. Doncaster Museum Herbarium
5. Field., J. (1972) English Field Names: A Dictionary. David & Charles, Newton Abbot.
6. Howes, C. A. (1988) Proof of evidence for Friars Hill, Tickhill Public Inquiry August 1988. Unpublished MS in Doncaster Museum.
7. Howes, C. A. (1991) Hop Yard Hay Meadow. Unpublished MS in Doncaster Museum.
8. Howes, C. A., McDonald, I. and Oliver, M. (1993) The Wild Service Tree Survey (pp.50-51) in Bramley, D. M. (ed) A Survey of Wadworth Wood. Doncaster Naturalists’ Society.
9. Howitt, R. C. L. and Howitt, B. M. (1963) A Flora of Nottinghamshire. Nottingham.
10. Langridge, B. (1987) A Survey and Evaluation of Selected Woodlands in South Yorkshire. Nature Conservancy Council, Wakefield.
11. Lees, F. A. (1888) The Flora of West Yorkshire. Bot. Ser. Trans. YNU. Vol 2
12. Miller, Rev. J. K. (ed) Woodruffe-Peacock, Rev. E. A. (1895) The rarer plants of the Walkeringham neighbourhood in Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. Naturalist, 10:159-171.
13. Pearson, J. (1986) Plant Gall Report (pp. 29-31) in Bramley, D. M. (ed) A Survey of Wadworth Wood. Doncaster Naturalists’ Society.
14. Roper, P. (1993) The distribution of the Wild Service Tree, Sorbus torminalis (L.) Cranz, in the British Isles, Watsonia, 19: 209-229.
15. Simmons, M. (1993) A Catalogue of the Herbarium of the British Flora collected by Margaret Stovin (1756-1846). Middlesbrough Borough Council, Middlesborough.
16. Skidmore, P. (1973) List of vascular plants (pp. 71-109) in Philips, H. (ed.) Edlington Wood, Doncaster Rural District Council.
17. Skidmore, P. (1983) The Ecology of Sandall Beat Local Nature Reserve. DMBC Directorate of Educational Services.
18. Skidmore, P., Dolby, M. J. and Hooper, M. D. (1980) Thomas Tofield of Wilsic: Botanist and Civil Engineer 1730-1779. Doncaster Museum Publication
19. Smith, A. H. (1961) The Place Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire. Pt. 1. Vol 30 (p. 33). Place Names Society, CUP.
20. Stacy, C. (1992) New Flora of the British Isles. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
21. South Yorkshire County Council (1980) Phase 1 Habitat Survey of South Yorkshire. (Doncaster area records held at Doncaster Museum).

C. A. Howes
Museum & Art Gallery, Chequer Road, Doncaster DN1 2AE